James Griffing wrote from the steamboat New Lucy on the Missouri River to his fiancee J. Augusta Goodrich in Owego, New York. Griffing, a Methodist minister, was on his way back to New York to get married. He commented upon the concerns that Ms. Goodrich likely was experiencing as she prepared to leave her New York home to join him in Kansas Territory. Griffing tried to convince his fiancee that they would make a good home for themselves in Kansas. He also expressed the opinion that the "excitement upon the slavery question" in Kansas Territory was exaggerated and that serious violence over the issue was unlikely.